A police horse-trainer had his career shattered when he crashed off the road to avoid two holiday coaches, a court heard.

Michael Thompson, who had been working for the mounted section of Northumbria Police, suffered serious back injuries when he was forced off the road by two holiday coaches, one of which had broken down.

He was claiming £10,000 in damages and an undecided compensation sum for loss of earnings from National Holiday Coaches and Snaiths Travel.

The case was settled for an undisclosed sum after both parties said they had reached a satisfactory agreement.

Newcastle Crown Court heard how Mr Thompson, 44, from West Woodburn, south of Otterburn, had been driving his Audi saloon car within the allowed speed limit of 60mph south-bound along the A696 single carriageway road towards Newcastle city centre on October 21 2000, near Wallington Hall crossroads.

After turning a left hand bend in the road Mr Thompson, who was off-duty at the time, claimed he had to brake and swerve suddenly to avoid crashing into the two coaches, one of which was parked and the other just starting to pull out on to the road.

Jeremy Freedman, defending, said: "Mr Thompson was confronted with situation of immediate peril but he had to make a judgement and react to the circumstances.

"In fact it was a very skilful piece of driving and it could have been serious had there been a collision."

Mr Thompson claimed he had swerved to avoid one of the coaches that was moving out on to the road, after being waved on by the driver of the other coach.

The policeman's car came to a standstill on the grass verge by the side of the road causing him severe back injuries.

Doctors subsequently told Mr Thompson the nature of his injuries would mean he could no longer continue in his job as a horse trainer or continue to ride and in February 2002 he was retired by Northumbria Police for medical reasons.

Mr Freedman said: "This was a job he loved. It was a passion of his and he had every intention of staying with the mounted section.

"He clearly can't go back to working with horses so he has lost his opportunity to work with horses and his job in the force.

"When his career came to an end in 2002 that was a shattering event for him."

After a studying at college, Mr Thompson joined the police force when he was 19 and moved to the mounted section in 1994.